Himal Fiction Fest, e-version, coming up in June- I am one of only 6 Asian writers selected.

Himal Fiction Fest, e-version, coming up in June- I am one of only 6 Asian writers selected.

Dear All,

I believe in working straight through any life or health crisis, writing every day and painting as often as I can.

Writing for me is a way of thinking aloud and getting life choices in order.

I wrote Beast, based on a Burmese story (Thiha Bahu), about 2001 starting it in a short-lived building writing group, and finished it after a gap of several years.

Previously, Himal Southasia had published one fiction piece Black Belt and one non-fiction piece Potemkin Politics of mine.

Himal acquiring editor told me they publish fiction infrequently, but as a former contributor he would like to see my work (that has not been published before).

I sent 2 pieces, 1st one 1st chapter of novel I have been working on since last July. Beast was my 2nd submission.

There will be an ad. campaign that they will do, also e-sessions on publishing and (joint) readings on Twitter-

I already worked through Beast w the Himal copy editor and now they are working on the illustrations.

In the past 2005 I went to Berlin for a similar festival of Writers who Dare Confront at House of World Culture where also a small # of writers were selected.

They found us on Internet and that one included Vietnamese poet Linh Dinh

https://substack.com/profile/4965357-linh-dinh

my now-friend Mariane Villaneuva, https://themuseumofamericana.net/the-walker-fiction-by-marianne-villanueva/

and founder of "Indonesian Time Magazine" Tempo, Goenawan Mohamad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goenawan_Mohamad

Needless to say I had a swell time, with only 2 scares, one involving Burmese and the other the Philippine ambassador to Germany, who insisted M's story of gang rape of beauty queen "never happened."

Marianne gave me permission to write abt that.

I

'll have more details later.

K

yi May

4-18-2023